How Thanos recognised Stark in Avengers: Infinity War?

The Avengers: Infinity War saw one of the most bizarre situations occurring in the MCU. While some may think that they have reasons for happening, we are yet to see the reasons in the upcoming sequel. One such situation was when Thanos recognised Stark. While fans were working out how he knew Stark, we didn’t get the answer in the Infinity War. While there are many theories out being discussed between the fans, we’ll analyse the theories most close to reality in the context of MCU.

The Battle of New York

In the Avengers, our favourite superheroes fought alongside Loki and the army of Chitauri. While the Avengers fended off the attack, Stark also managed to deploy a significant Nuclear Warhead to the Chitauri mothership before it could enter the Earth through the wormhole.

While Stark deployed the Nuclear Warhead, the mad titan was closely watching all of this happening, and as Thanos has won countless battles and trained in the art of war, he’s a master tactician and a strategist. Thanos would have closely researched on Avengers before he could finally take them on (Thanos recognised Stark).

While this may tell us how Thanos recognised Stark, it doesn’t explain his words “cursed with knowledge” concerning Stark. Some fans believe that after Stark fought off the alien invasion, hi detour to the Chitauri mothership gave him the knowledge about Thanos returning once again and moreover, as Thanos is a genius and Stark on the Earth is also considered a genius it may justify the Thanos’ words. Thanos also recognises Stark as an excellent tactician and a strategist, so maybe Thanos said those words because he recognised him as a worthy opponent.

The Soul Stone

In the attempt to wipe out half the universe, Thanos was set to find all the stones including the Soul Stone. The Soul stone gives the user the ability to see through the souls and their hearts and feel their emotions. A theory also floated across the internet that as Thanos was using the Soul Stone, he may have looked into the life of Stark and how out of fear he created Ultron and therefore said those words. While this may explain a bit why Thanos called knowledge a curse, the supporting evidence isn’t much to back up this theory. There was no light in the soul stone when Stark said those words, so we cannot know for sure that Thanos was using the Soul stone when he said those words.

While one theory doesn’t satisfactorily explain why Thanos said those words and second not having any sufficient evidence to back the theory, we also research the idea of time-travel.

Did Thanos already know Stark?

As the photos from the sets of Avengers 4 are coming through the internet, we know that the Avengers may be travelling in time back to New York battle to undo what Thanos has done. While this is still not confirmed but we do have pieces of evidence for backing this theory.

While he was battling the Avengers, the Thanos recognised Stark, and as we know, Stark and the left out Avengers going back in time. It may be a possibility that Thanos knew Stark as he travels in the past. While this may explain how he recognised him and why he said those words, it also explains his snarl when he meets Iron Man. But there’s a fundamental problem with this theory, it doesn’t follow up with the time-travelling logic of the MCU in comics and as we have seen in X-Men Days of Future Past.

Any change in timeline causes a ripple effect and creates another branched timeline, so any encounter between Thanos and Iron Man should create another timeline. But as we all know, physics in the MCU follow up till the moment it doesn’t as we have seen Ant-Man cracking a paving stone when he drops to the ground, with Hank Pym carrying a tank on his key-chain or wheeling a shrunken building away. There’s a lot of discontinuities in the MCU when it comes to the Physics.

What do you guys think? How Thanos knew Stark and why he said those words to him? Do let us know in the comment section below.

Varun is a budding writer and an engineer hailing from New Delhi, India. He is an ardent follower of the fiction entertainment industry and loves to read and follow comics, anime and box-office smashing superhero movies and TV series. Apart from writing, he invests most of the time coding and singing. He loves people sharing their ideas and views with him, so do share your views and ideas in the comment section if you liked the article